Lost And The Damned

"...Their armies are often insane personal creations pursuing a path of strategy and tactics which defies rational military explanation. Their followers may be disciplined and well armed, backed with prodigious amounts of armour and firepower or a teeming horde of primitively armed mutants, monsters and daemons. The seemingly insane, unpredictable assaults of which Chaos forces are a nightmare for strategic planners and lowly troopers alike."-Page 42; Codex: Eye of Terror

Introduction

The Lost and the Damned are a true Chaos army, not drawing from the traitor legions of excommunicate, but rather on the true forces of Chaos, being the hordes of beings enslaved and trapped within the grasps of truly powerful individuals working through the power of Chaos to spread the Taint.The Hordes of Chaos draw from a plethora of resources and allows for virtually anything and anyone to appear along side each other, brainlessly marching on in the name of the Fallen ones. In game terms, this means we can have a vast variety of different units, ranging from lowly mutant scum to traitorous guardsmen and excommunicate legions to daemons and possessed followers and even Kroot who have fallen under the evil grasp of Chaos.The Lost and the Damned ruleset from Codex: Eye of Terror, is the basis for many unique armies that allows for practically endless army creation with limitless inspiration and uniqueness.One can use the rules as the basis for any sort of creation as well as any existing army (which is a very nice way to introduce old fantasy armies, such as Lizardmen, to the 40k battlefield without paying a dime!). But otherwise, we already have a very rich environment to draw from to build our own army--of which no specific models are created for. So get your imagination caps on and enjoy your Damned the way you see fit, your way, your style!

Force Organizational Chart

One of the biggest stepping stones when entering the Lost and the Damned, is to over-come our Force Organizational chart as it's not the same as standard Chaos, nor does it follow the same rules as normal allies or induction policies from the other codices involved. So let's walk through it briefly to get an idea of what we can and cannot do as well as how our allied units tie into this.

Lost and the Damned (referred to as pure)

Lost and the Damned with allied Chaos Space Marines

Lost and the Damned with allied Kroot Mercenaries

It is important to note that our only two real ally options come from Codex: Chaos Space Marines and the Chapter Approved Kroot Mercenaries. As such, we follow the normal rules for allies, requiring us to take compulsory from our Lost and the Damned, before taking the allied units into the list and are still subject to the normal restrictions of 0-1 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast Attack and 0-2 Troops.The difference however, is due to the FAQ release, our ally options are not limited to Chaos Space Marines -or- Kroot Mercenaries, but we may include both as allies and they do not count towards each others limited ally force organizational chart slots. In other words, we may have 2 allies Troops from the Chaos Space Marines as well as 2 allied troops from the Kroot Mercenaries, so long as we have our compulsory 2 Troop selections from the Lost and the Damned prior. The Kroot Mercenaries also allow us to take a single 0-1 Heavy Support selection in addition to normal ally rules. More on this later!When taking Chaos Space Marine allies, it's good to know that you may take specific legions as allies (such as the Word Bearers) in terms of what skills or war gear they may have access to. However, as always, any mark of Chaos will render the unit an Elite selection--more on this later though! But in other words, you could take a Dark Apostle from the Word Bearers for example and have the Accursed Crozius and Demagogue ability--quite handy when leading legions of scum!It is also important to note that we may not take the Lost and the Damned as an ally to another force, of any kind--we may not take Lost and the Damned as an ally to Chaos Space Marines should that thought cross your mind.

Lost and the Damned Units

The pure selections from the Lost and the Damned are generally powerful daemonic entities who are solo, or who are a squad, or who simply lead a horde of traitorous scum or mutants. There is a heavy amount of mutated units as well as traitor units, but all can be mixed with the daemonic powers that called them to duty and thus the Chaos Horde Army is born.

Headquarter Selections

(HQ) Arch hereticThe Arch Heretic is simply a powerful individual who has assumed control over a massive horde of followers. He could have been a rouge Inquisitor or a fallen Chapter leader, or even simply a fallen Commander from another legion. Whatever his origins, he's now a Heretic and master of Chaos. Ruleswise, he is a Chaos Lt. or Chaos Sorcerer. You may mark him as normal, and he has full access to all the normal Chaos armoury as within Codex: Chaos Space Marines, but he'll be known as the Arch Heretic to the Lost and the Damned. However, beware, whatever marks you use will still be subject to ancient enemies.This is actually not my preferred HQ selection, but it is totally up to your style. For me, the other options are far more interesting, as well as we can take him as an ally later for more interesting effects in the game!(HQ) Chaos Space Marine Aspiring ChampionsPowerful individuals who have taken a more solo career in their devotion to Chaos, as often crazed followers do, can lead your army! The good news is that you get up to 3 of them for a single HQ selection and they may all be different and have full access to the Chaos Armory and carry different marks! However, theymust lead a unit of Traitors or Mutants prior to deployment and they too still count towards ancient enemies rules so choose carefully your marks, should you take them. You will notice that the marks of Chaos differ for these champs in the way that they work, they are cheaper for some, more expensive for others.They do not actually function as true marks of Chaos, but are very similar. The marks of chaos to do benefit the squads that they lead, except for the mark of Undivided, as you'll notice it is considerably more expensive but very useful as well for keeping your hordes moving forward (the price is the same if you consider you normally would mark every single model with undivided in a normal chaos list, and here anywhere from 15 to 30 models will be benefited by this single mark, so it's quite efficient). These selections often function as a cheap method (though not very preferred) way to summon a Greater Daemon.These champsion are my favorite way to field HQ's in my Lost and the Damned. Chaos champions are incredibly powerful and have full access to the armory of Chaos. As such, we can create little miniature Chaos gods of our own, of each champion and then bury him in the midst of a huge amount of bodies who keep him safe and allow him to punish everyone else from that safety. As such, I always lavish the gifts of Chaos upon my champions so that they will better destroy my enemies. These champs convey a Ld10 to their squads they lead, and if they're marked undivided, we may re-roll our tests--this is very expensive, but quite useful so it may be a consideration. For me, I prefer the standard setup of the following:

(HQ) Greater DaemonOf course we can still have a Greater Daemon lead our packs of traitors and mutant scum--what better a beast to inspire treachery? The Greater Daemons still require a Chaos Space Marine unit to be summoned, so we may not use our cheap traitors or mutants for this job, which leaves us with the following Lost and the Damned units: Chaos Aspiring Champion (from the HQ selection); Possessed Aspiring Champion (elite selection). Depending on how you take your allies from the Chaos Space Marines, you can get more options for this (such as normal Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Bikes, or Chaos Raptors for example).You are still limited to 0-1 of these monsters, so keep that in mind when you take an allied HQ selection--you may not have 2 Greater Daemons no matter what.I love Greater Daemons, but I don't prefer them for Lost and the Damned due to the incredibly fun, power and flavor of the Aspiring Champion options. However, of the Greater Daemons, the Lord of Change is an excellent choice due to speed and power, as a moving anti-tank weapon in and of itself as well as a powerful combat entity. The Keeper of Secrets is another one of my preferred daemons due to sheer ability per price. Don't forget your free psychic power!

Elite Selections

(Elite) Big MutantsBig Mutants are simply mutants, who quite obviously, are much bigger! And how can one argue with a mutant like this? They're massive and bulky and have big stats to show that "big" word in their name. Their armor save however, is nothing to admire--much like any horde army, the Horde itself never has much in terms of protective armor.However, our Big Mutants do have some upgrades to go with their raw stats. From their stats, it's pretty obvious they're no straight shooters with a weak ballistic skill. However, their weapon skill and strength and number of attacks are quite good for their points. Their initiative is something to lack however at the speed of a guardsmen. The squad itself has a few weapon options which we'll discuss as well as other buff options.Weapon Option

Firearms: They could be useful, but due to over-heating, it's not very helpful to our squad, but detrimental considering our armor save.

Flamer: Two models can carry a Flamer, and for a good reason! This is the perfect weapon when your ballistic skill is in the tank.

Heavy Stubber: This is a weaker version of a heavy bolter, however it is an assault weapon in the hands of a Big Mutant, but again, not terribly useful with a low ballistic skill.

Squad Option

Scaly: Each Big Mutant can be upgraded in this way to gain a better armor save, up to the levels of a 4+ save. This is actually quite useful, but for the price, it may leave you wanting.

Character OptionFor a massive price, we can take a Boss, who does not have access to the armory. What our boss does, is gain stat-line buffs and an increased Leadership. However, not very useful of an upgrade.I really love Big Mutants but I'm sad to admit that they're just not that great. They're really expensive and they die extremely quickly due to being slow and very large. They have great character, but their leadership and resilience are both on the low side which is a cause of concern as an Elite selection. They are perfect for the roll of a bigger mutants in a pure mutant army though!(Elite) PossessedThe perfect example of traitors are crazy Possessed. They're a great unit, though expensive and are standard elites in the Lost and the Damned. They can be marked as normal and can have all their normal upgrades, but are still subject to not being allowed to have veteran skills.They're a great way to get a mounted elite unit in power armor with invulnerable saves to the front lines of your enemy as well as having a Daemon Vessel for a champion! Possessed have squad buffs of course, and are outlined as such:

Daemonic Talons - Talons are the most popular choice due to their raw power, it's cheap and highly effective at giving killer attacks to the Possessed. Coupled with the Mark of Khorne we have a death squad.

Daemonic Fire - Fire is a weak ability at a high price for its use. We already can have bolt pistols so what's the use of paying quite a bit extra for another one? It doesn't change much and not really worth it.

Daemonic Visage - Visage is a great ability at a decent price! The entire squad suddenly has a great leadership modifier against their opponents, however, the same can be achieved from the Champ.

Daemonic Mutation - Mutation is a solid ability, but very pricey for what it does. However, it is the only way besides marks of chaos to increase our attacks and maintain our pistols.

I really like Possessed as they have a lot of flavor. Marks of Slaneesh and Marks of Khorne are excellent ways to make really killer units who will eat through virtually anything with their rending Daemonic Talons, focusing on more speed or simply more raw attacks. Remember your transports though since we cannot infiltrate and protect these investments!(Elite) Daemon PacksIn the Lost and the Damned, daemons are no longer troops but Elites, and it makes sense, since our basic troops are lower than traitor legions of marines on the scales. As such a Daemon would be quite elite compared to the likes of them! The good news, is that no matter what units you take, you can typically summon these daemons from virtually any squad without marks of Chaos. Many squads even allow multiple icons due to sheer numbers for very cheap prices. Now, let's take a look at what Daemons we have to offer, since taking up Elite slots is quite a valuable slot:BloodletterBloodletters are the ultimate daemon. They're better than terminators and are quite surprising with their brutal close combat ability and the fact that they can move and attack the turn they arrive. They're also the only daemon with an armor save coupled with their invulnerable save and have the highest leadership possible for the instability tests.For their price, a squad of 8 are definitely something that will put a tear in your opponent's eye when a squad of them rips through even the toughest of foes. Their strength of 5 and number of attacks, and Hellblades (power weapons) are their high points, with their 3+ armor save.PlaguebearerPlaguebeaers are tough, nasty little daemons with nurgle's rot and daemonic venom. They can wound anything and everything with a Wound characteristic. With their Rot ability, they can cause a lot of extra wounds to surrounding units, so it's a good idea to keep them away from your hordes and smack in the middle of theirs. They're typically best against really tough units (such as Wraithlords) and numerous foes with low armor saves. Not one of my favorites due to their ability to kill our own units off, but they're relatively cheap and relatively effective.Horror / Flamer of TzeentchThe Horrors are not the greatest of Daemons, with low stat-line characteristics and weak abilities all around, but they are the only shooting daemons in our selections here. Their upgradable to Flamers of Tzeentch however, which are are in fact incredible as they are assault heavy bolters with multiple wounds, decent leadership and invulnerable saves. This is the best daemon to surprise someone with if you take a load of 10 you will unleash 30 assault heavy bolter powers into your enemy at better than rapidfire range. Incredible daemon if shooting is your thing, but it comes at a price (though a cheap one for the ability!).DaemonetteThe Daemonettes are one of the best daemons due to speed, power and cheap price. They'll strike first in combat typically and with their rending talons they'll butcher even tough armor. They're fragile though, so treat then as glass cannons and make sure assault happens the moment they arrive. The more the merrier too with this daemon as you want every bit of a chance on that charge as you can for their price.

Troop Selections

(Troop) TraitorsThe heart and sole, other than mutants, are the massive amounts of Traitors that have taken the side to Chaos. Traitors are really nasty little guys and are basically guardsmen, but they know their surroundings so they naturally have infiltration (they lose infiltration if they're lead by a Chaos Aspiring Champion). They also have very low leadership due to their shifty nature being a traitor.But they come in either small packs of specialists and even large groups of scum and can be lead by an Agitator. We have a new weapon option though which is a heavy weapon to couple with our heavy weapon option so we can get a long range squad of Traitors with two weapons unlike normal guardsmen squads! The heavy stubber is a fantastic upgrade to take, for cheap to couple along with your normal heavy bolter or whatever else you wish to have.They're also great that they can infiltrate and have a chaos icon for daemon summoning. Hordes of traitors backed up by power daemons--check! These traitors are the most plentiful way to get your anti-tank support in the army other than vehicular weapons. Traitors have normal transport options, but can even take Rhinos as well as the Chimera--if a transport is taken they become a Fast Attack selection however. An Important note is to also know that Traitors taken as compulsory selections must be fielded at their maximum squad sizes.Traitors are excellent with small squads and infiltration for quick and easy ways to have scoring units all over the board with long range weaponry for a very good price! However, unless they're lead by a Chaos Aspiring Champion or near a Dirge Caster, they will break and run very easily with a low leadership--so a good setup is essential when taking many of them and if you're using them offensively, consider those two essential upgrades or park them near a Dirge Caster (remember, even a humble Rhino can have a Dirge Caster!).Traitors also perform the valuable function that when you buy troops of them, you gain access to Fast Attack and Heavy Support selections from the Guardsmen units available. For each troop selection of Traitors, you may have a single new selection from Traitor Recon or Traitor Tanks, so the more you have, the more of the monstrous Guard tanks you have have (for example: Sentinels, Hellhounds and Leman Russ Battle Tanks). Traitors taken with a transport are a Fast Attack selection and therefore do not grant you access--it must be a troop selection!My preferred setup is about 8 traitors with an Autocannon and a Heavy Stubber. They have good medium range fire, and you'll always hit a few shots typically and you can damage light vehicles as well as mow down infantry with ease. Many squads of these are a perfect way to stop advancing squads from decent range. In a transport, we have a whole new setup of options, but keep in mind that Chaos vehicles can have a Dirge Caster upgrade which renders all Chaos friendly units Fearless--this is a great way to keep hordes of Traitors in their place if they huddle around a single vehicle with a Dirge caster for example.(Troop) MutantsThe mutants are the true core of the Lost and the Damned, when not considering traitors. They are the Hordes. We can have 180 of these nasty mutants and they're cheaper than most horde units out there. On top of it, they're actually quite good. They've got normal stats for their points costs, but with extras due to Chaos's power--they're tougher and actually have an armor save to speak of! And better yet, more base attacks than most things that cost this much.They're truly amazing in the sense of what you get for their price. They can take a Mutant Boss who can also be rigged from the Chaos Armory as well as be joined by a Chaos Aspiring Champion--you heard it right, two leaders in the same squad. If you want to know what power is, it's two chaos armory champs with powerfists sitting in the middle of 30 mutants. It's all relatively cheap and just butchers anything in combat--up to 9 or 10 powerfist attacks with 30+ wounds is no joke.You could even go the Lightning Claw route if that's your think. The point is, there's no real stock way to do it as you can do almost anything with these mutants. They're perfect for making any kind of custom troop for your list. If you have a bunch of Chaos Beastmen lying around, pick them up and call them beastmen and use these Mutants rules to create them. You can literally make anything here. They even can get firearms weapons for free if you wish to make a horde of shooting "creatures" or lowly peasant scum with rifles. Whatever you desire.The mutants also have access to a few weapons, such as flamers and heavy stubbers aside from normal firearms. They also can have multiple Chaos Icons for summoning daemons. Lastly, they have a Blessings of the Gods option whereby you can in a way, mark them to your whim to have buffs and upgrades, but they're not truly marked so you do not have to worry about ancient enemies or anything. These upgrades are very different from chaos marks as well as they bring about large changes that you normally would not expect--the trade off is that it's per model so it can get very expensive in large squads.Blessings of the Gods

Bloated - This upgrade improves the armour save. Not bad considering the price, but generally not the best idea out there. More bodies is generally better than "better" bodies so to speak!

Burly, Brawny, Goatheaded - A strength upgrade to bring us up to the strength of a marine. It's a decent price and a decent upgrade, but not really my cup of tea either.

Horrifying - This is the cheapest upgrade and it simply adds daemonic visage to the squad, but not full blown visage. You can actually get it cheaper on a Chaos Champ for the same effect.

Leaping, Floating or Winged - Now we're talking. They gain cavalry movement but it comes at double their initial cost.. However you could have "gaunts" so to speak, lead by Chaos Champs here. Power.

Note: You cannot take more than one upgrade.I personally never take upgrades such as these, bar the Leaping upgrade simply because I prefer to have more mutants rather than a few special ones. They are horde units after all and their strength lies in numbers and quantity, not quality and resilience.Note: Plague Zombies can also be taken. They're a special unit which simply use the bloated upgrade and become fearless. The trade off is that they're always moving in difficult terrain and cannot have or be led by champs at all. These are really nice to have, for resilience sake, however they are more of a theme unit if you wish to make an army of hordes of un-moving un-killable hordes of 180 fearless shambling zombies rising from their graves to spread the taint of Chaos.They're good in small games--but bad in big games. However, they're at least an option for your theme-needs!I personally love to take Mutants and I have made many little iron-armor plated wearing warriors. Mine are not "mutants" but instead they're simply warriors of chaos who have taken up arms for their Champion who has them under their spell. I take a normal Boss along with my Champion and I typically give my boss a huge hammer or massive pike (to be counted as a powerfist) and my Chaos Champion takes his pair of Lightning Claws. They both are protected by the armor of 24 other mutants and are unshakable with Leadership 10. This mix of weaponry gives me a dominating close combat ability against even the toughest of foes and enough bodies with a decent armor save to last fight after fight, as well as casualties from shooting. I take 3 groups of them standard before doing anything else with my Lost and the Damned. This is just an example of things you can do if you enjoy theme armies!(Troop) Gibbering HordesHave you ever wanted an army of nurgling type daemons but didn't want to play Deathguard and couldn't do it anyway due to mark restrictions? Well, now you can. Gibbering Hordes are Nurglings for rules purposes, but you may ignore the rules on the mark of Nurgle for the purpose of determining how many you take.In otherwords, you're free to take as many as you wish. Fluff-wise they're considered to be even less than Nurlgings, so they are truly the scum of the scum here. If you wanted 6 Troop selections of these nasty little things, you could mass up 180 wounds of 5+ invulnerable saving beasts that are merely subject to daemonic instability and have improved cover saves! The downside is that they cannot hold objectives or table quarters, so they're not a good choice for the competitive types--but they do make for interesting armies if you wish to add a single squad just for a "speed bump" so to speak.

Fast Attack Selections

(Fast) Chaos HoundsThe standard fast attack selection is a squad of Chaos hounds. They're not the best thing out there, but it's an option. And who's to complain with the cavalry movement rules? You could have hordes of fast moving Dogs along with hordes of fast moving mutants, backed up by ordinance. It's crazy the things you could do with this army list.However, in this case, I fear the dogs don't have much in terms of being a steady unit. Hounds are more of an interceptor unit to get into combat quickly to silence a few long range guns. Another consideration could be having an independent character with daemonic speed join them for cheap fast bodies with good stats--however, majority armor saves and toughness would play a big roll in this decision--however at least they would benefit from the leadership boost.Overall, not an effective unit to take in my opinion compared to our other choices--but at least it's there for your conversion or theme needs!(Fast) Daemonic BeastsOnce again, more daemons. This time, it's the same as in Codex Chaos Space Marines as the fast attack beasts are here too. This is a wonderful assortment since we have a good range of daemons to choose from this time, all of which move very fast. What better way to unleash an assault from your shambling hordes of traitors and mutants than to break the bonds of the universe to allow some daemons to burst forward and start the fight!Flesh Hounds are of Khorne of course, and decent in combat. They have a higher strength than normal marines and come in fast at initiative 5 to couple with their plentiful attacks. On top of it all, they move as cavalry! We're talking fast, strong and numerous. What's the kicker then? Well, the price--they're expensive. They're a great combat starter and can really land a good charge, but after the initial charge, they are vulnerable due to poor numbers due to price and the normal assortment of invulnerable save, however even worse, an average leadership which is odd considering Khorne the God of combat here. Not the best choice, but at least they're an option!Screamers are fast, strong and have hit and run. They're fairly cheap too! These are a great fast attack daemon due to their numbers and just sheer pounding ability of hitting over and over again. They also have furious charge, so we're talking fastest of the fast here with initiative 6 and strength 5 on the charge, though our attacks are limited. Still this is a fantastic choice for a quick surpassing blow as well as continual battery hammering with hit and run. They're a great choice, but keep their numbers on the low side as they aren't meant to last forever, but rather be a spearhead.Furies are the king of the fast attack really. They're fast, they're strong and have a good number of attacks. They compare to Screamers, but Furies are undivided so we need not worry with the Chaos Ancient Enemies problems when we play with many marks. Furies are also cheap, so consider them a mixture of the Flesh Hound meats the Screamer. A little slower than the hounds and a little stronger than the Screamer. If you have no issues with the gods--the Screamers are better, but for the happy median, this could be your choice. The only downside to them is their leadership of 7 which means you may become instable more often so don't expect them to last very long. Again, a good spearhead unit.(Fast) Traitor ReconFinally--Tank action! That's right, we can get tanks and sentinels and all sorts of fun stuff to travel along side our hordes. Quite a twist on fate really! Now, to afford Traitor Recon we must follow the normal requirement of having a single troop selection of Traitors to afford each Recon selection. Luckily, these come in squads except for the Hellhound, so generally one is all you need!I generally advise the Hellhound due to it's sheer power--against non-power armor armies, it is a Leman Russ in itself. However, sentinels are also great for getting that pre-game action as well as more anti-tank ability. Let's take a look at them all closer:SentinelsWhat's not to like about sentinels? We get our free game move, they're always fielded and they can have great long range weapons. In Lost and the Damned terms, they're a great way to bring autocannons early into the game and they're an armored squad so we may afford many of them with our single Traitor choice without going overboard. One could still take 9 if they wished however. The sentinels have an assortment of weaponry that will be important to choose from, so let's take a look at what we have available:

Heavy Flamer - Great for small games and Patrols, but not advised as you can get more than this in your normal squads.

Multi-laser - Now we're talking. We get a mountain of shots at a good strength value. They're excellent for anti-infantry and for taking on light transports.

Autocannon - My preferred weapon due to strength, range and volume of shots. It can take on infantry and vehicles alike and generally hits at least a few times.

Lascannon - Of course there's the mighty lascannon to break armored hulls. However, with an average ballistic skill, I wouldn't recommend too many of these on fragile Sentinels.

I prefer 3 Sentinels with 2 Autocannons and a single Lascannon. It gives a good versatility for hitting often, damaging virtually anything and overall doing what Sentinels do best--shoot something down early.RoughridersThe roughriders are there for flavor. Really they're not nearly as good as the possibility of the other Fast Attack options, however, they're great if you want a non-daemonic, non-vehicular selection that can move fast and provide a spearhead assault unit. Aside from that, they're very flavorful for an all traitor army on foot. Their other benefit is cost--they're as cheap as traitors! Another option is their weapons.They can be outfitted to really take on a vehicle at blinding speed with meltaguns and even better--meltabombs! What can you say to 18~24 inch movement just to put some meltabombs into the hull of a Land Raider? Roughriders also provide a great rule-base for modeling other creatures or characterful units to take their place. Perhaps you want lizards on mounted or just fast moving monsters of some kind--well, here are your rules. Also, as they're cheap and highly specialized as a spearhead, they're not so bad to be taken in multiples.Perhaps you would prefer a mutant hound with a suicidal bomb tied to their back racing across the field to sacrifice itself to blow a hole into the armor of an opposing tank--here's your chance!I really like Roughriders. Their ability to have small squads that are fast and carrying meltabombs are my favorite way to surprise my enemies vehicles with a melta-enhanced charge. A squad of 5 with a Veteran and meltabombs is so cheap for the damage they'll cause that it's no wonder we can't take more of these boys. And should we lose them? C'est pas grave. It won't matter... they cost nothing to being with and this is Chaos afterall!HellhoundHellhounds rock. Ever since the re-release of the codex, hellhounds gained serious power. They are smaller version of Leman Russ battle tanks now and again non-power armor armies, they are just as effective, if not more so with a non-scattering template of Inferno Cannon goodness--plus we never truly miss! With some extra armor, these Hellhounds are good for taking the charge to the front line while your hordes are approaching and believe me they will absorb heat when that Inferno Cannon starts working at that solid range they have, giving your hordes all the time they need to reach the front line as well as softening it up real good. The trade off for one of the best fast attacks is the price--she's not cheap!Hellhounds are incredible tanks in 4th edition with Inferno Cannon and Heavy Bolters. Also, you can purchase the heavy stubber from the armory to have 3 weapons that fire each turn at similar ranges while you advance. At the 36 inch range, we have the heavy stubber and heavy bolter with 6 shots. Then at 24 inch range we up the power with the Inferno Cannon plus our other weapons. The output is insane.

Heavy Support Selections

(Heavy) DefilerWell, the mother of all heavy support for any Chaos army seems to be the Defiler. It's no surprise that a daemonically possessed vehicle is standard for the Lost and the Damned as well then! Defilers are serious fire magnets as well as damaging fire bases themselves. Hordes backed up by Battle Cannons? Check! The big thing is also that they're a walker and can take upgrades to allow them to stay right up in front with their hordes of mutants and traitors as well.The Dirge Caster is an excellent option for the mobile or static Defiler. If the Defiler is hulldown or out of sight and firing Indirectly, the Dirge Caster is great to help keep surrounding Traitors Fearless. If the Defiler is out front, with a mutated hull and a dirge caster, we can press forward with the rest of the horde, keeping them fearless while absorbing virtually all enemy fire power or else they suffer the wrath of the Battle Cannon.This beast is expensive however, so don't go overboard with the upgrades. Generally it's good to take Mutated Hull and a Dirge caster if you plan on seeing action--otherwise, Indirect Fire and a Dirge Caster is fine too. I would recommend not mixing Mutated Hull and Indirect Fire however as this is way too costly.There is no limitation on these babies--so if you want pure Chaos out there, this is your choice. This is serious heavy support to contrary to the Horde that may be out in the front lines drawing all the attention from them.(Heavy) Chaos SpawnSpawn are fun heavy supports though they do take up a valuable slot. Spawn are cheap, very effective and very strong--but insanely stupid. The good news is that they come in small squads, for cheap and can still hold quarters for us! Plus, they're fearless already, tough, and have multiple wounds and a great armor save.The trade off is that stupidity they have as you must pass a leadership test just to be able to do anything with them (unless you're already fighting in combat... they're not that stupid!). Spawn shine in the small games where heavy tanks are not needed as they can be brutally tough. They also lay down serious hurt in combat with a plethora of attacks and good strength.I personally love spawn--they fit right into Combat Patrol and are so incredibly tough. They're great for taking small squads to capture quarters too if you don't find yourself taking very much heavy support. They're a great option in that sense.(Heavy) Traitor TankTraitor tanks are where it's at. Who doesn't want a Leman Russ backing their Chaos force? Yea, I didn't think so! Well, you have to have Traitors to gain access to Traitor tanks, but that's not a bad price considering what they can do as well. The good thing is that we are not limited except by how many troops we have, so three Leman Russ is a possibly, though not recommended of course.Leman Russ Battle TankThere is no arguing about this Battle Tank. It has the highest armor and the biggest gun around for a low price. In the Lost and the Damned, it's the perfect "in your face" tank to just steadily move forward and absorb all attention while your hordes either remain to fire or march along side it towards their enemy. I prefer taking all heavy bolters for the hull and sponsons simply because the Battle Cannon may be destroyed by all the attention it receives and it's good to have a secondary, cheap and voluminous type weapon on backup.However--remember you cannot grant it Chaos upgrades, so we cannot take our Dirge Casters here.BasiliskThe Basilisk is the sit and shoot guy's tank. If you want to just have a cheap, hidden ordinance tank than this is your man. However, because of it's over-specialized nature, it doesn't really fit into the Lost and the Damned unless you are going all-Traitors. I personally think the other options, of the Defiler and Leman Russ are far better and outweight the benefits of it's price by a long run. However, it is there for your ordinance needs as it can hide and fire for very cheap each turn.

Lost and the Damned with allied Chaos Space Marines

As with normal allies, we get our 0-1 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast Attack and 0-2 Troop selections for taking an ally. In our case, we may take our wicked step-brother, the Chaos Space Marines. We must fill compulsory first, but that's not too difficult with the wonderful options we already have.One important note, is that only the Chaos Space Marine units can have veteran skills and that you may take specific Legions as allies--so if you like the Word Bearers more than just normal Chaos, you can have them. However, any Mark of Chaos outside of HQ and Elite selections will force them to the Elites category, so you may limit your selections via Marks--not wise all the time, however it is an option. So what can an allyship with Chaos do for us?

Headquarter Selections

(HQ) Chaos LordWe have our Chaos Lord still! He is our secondary commander, but at least we can still take a mighty Daemon Prince should we choose to! This is the perfect way to get a powerful leader should you already have taken the Aspiring Champion selections on your Lost and the Damned list. In 4th edition, our independent characters become quite powerful as they cannot be picked out anymore in the shooting phase in many situations.So using this to our advantage, with non-statured Lords, we can build very powerful beings who can keep up with the Horde and act as a giant spearhead or finishing unit. I however prefer the mighty Daemon Prince due to fun-factor and versatility (and price!). Power for Cheap is what Chaos is all about, right? Well, since we can take Legion specific allies, that means we can take Character--so if you love Fabius Bile, why not take him? Overall--this is an expensive option, and limiting in terms of your Champions, but of course a very powerful option for having a solid daemon without summoning one.I prefer legion-specific Chaos Lords myself. I use the Word Bearers routinely because their Lord and Lt. can be a Demagogue which makes all Chaos friendly units fearless in a radius around them--just like a Dirge caster. With that in mind, you could take a Lord as a fallen Chaplain of the Damned, or Dark Apostle, complete with the Accursed Croazius (enhanced by daemonic strength!) and the Demagogue ability to create a fearless Horde of whatever you choose. The Lord would even be able to summon daemons as well. The good news is that he's safe due to Independent Character rules for this and then once we reach enemy lines--he's an undeniable Force to be feared.(HQ) Chaos Lt. or SorcererThe Lt. and Sorcerer option is already present in the Damned, but this is a way of taking a cheaper and lesser version of a legion specific character. Otherwise, all normal information is the same for this character as the normal Chaos Lord.I personally never take this option due to already having it in the Lost and the Damned as well as the Chaos Lord simply being so much better for a very little difference in price.(HQ) Greater DaemonThe Greater Daemon exists in both the Lost and the Damned as well as the Chaos Space Marines and still is subject to 0-1 in the army no matter what. So you may not have two greater daemons. As such having it in the ally is not really even worth considering as it's already there and changes nothing to take it from the Chaos Codex. All normal rules apply them as in Codex Chaos Space Marines. It is important to note that they can only be summoned by a Chaos Space Marine unit--not by agitators or bosses.So if you want a Greater Daemon leading your Traitors, you better have a Possessed Champion or Aspiring Champion present in the list somewhere acting as the Daemon Vessel.

Elite Selections

(Elite) ChosenChaos Chosen are undeniably powerful. The reason they're awesome in this partnership ally is that they only ever occupy a single Elite selection on the Force Organization Chart. With that in mind--you can have Chosen in retinues for your HQ selections where applicable as well as in their own squad as an Elite selection. We could easily have 3 squads of Chosen on the board. Chosen are insane in that they can all be Aspiring Champions which gives us virtually infinite possibilities with the Chaos Armory. Their price is also a good offset to shadow the cheapness of the Horde, which they would inevitably lead.Chosen Terminators could be summoned in via teleport homers on Champions in mutant or traitor squads which is undeniably powerful. Imagine three squads of Chosen with Chaos Lts. being teleported near infiltrated Traitor Agitators--quite the surprise considering those Leman Russes were the threat and now there's terminators at the doorstep!(Elite) ObliteratorsThat's right--more daemonic goodness. Heavy weapon platforms in the form of a beast with all the weapons you can ever want. Obliterators are the perfect Elite for the Lost and the Damned as they take up that valuable slot and bring so much to the army in terms of resilience and utility. They're a great source of tough tank-busting power and can absorb quite a bit of heat in the return fire times. They too can be teleported to homers on infiltrated squads or to help out mutants where they really shine.They mean business in the face of armor with twin-linked meltaguns and a S10 powerfist to tear open even the hardest of tanks.In the Lost and the Damned the Obliterators are a great way to get those lascannons to help take down tanks. They're tough and solid. I personally deepstrike mine when possible as a horrible surprises against enemy tanks that have taken a hull down state due to the advancing hordes I present. No one can argue with meltas and powerfists with their kind of resilience as they can shake off even a Battle Cannon shell as easily as a lasgun shot.

Troop Selections

(Troop) Chaos Space MarinesThe ultimate power-armored warriors at your disposal. The good news is that incredible size of their squads. We only have 2 selections of them possible, but we can take up to 20 models a piece, to make for massive selections. We have killer weapon options and more Aspiring Champions. Raw power at it's basic level.The bad news is that we cannot mark them or they will become an Elite selection which is a bad thing if you planned on taking other Elites! However, they can take veteran skills and summon daemons and all just as normal and have transport options still--so they're ever versatile and can provide extra Dirge Casters and extra heavy weapons along with resilience.I use these Marines sometimes with infiltration in massive squads with no upgrades except a combat-oriented Champion. No one is pleased by 16 marines with a powerfist that just infiltrated near your front lines to absorb all the pressure while the Horde is advancing!

Fast Attack Selections

(Fast) Chaos RaptorsPower armor with jump packs, plenty of special weapons, and more Chaos Champions and veteran skills--that's Chaos for you! Raptors are a great choice for quick resilience units that can be tank-busters or fry infantry or even just intercept or silence opposing weapon specialists. They're expensive however so the idea of them can't be taken lightly, however they can be afforded since our Hordes are so cheap!I typically would not rely on Raptors for combat support as the rest of our army is relatively dedicated to that. However, they're great as melta-squads or flamer squads. If you give them a roll and stick to it, you'll accomplish miracles. They're also a great way to get a Greater Daemon very close to summon as well as unleash a squad of daemons on a poor foe.Infiltrating Raptors with meltaguns can make short work of anything with an armor value.(Fast) Chaos Space Marine BikersSpace Marine Bikers are very strange in a Lost and the Damned army--however with 4th edition rules, they are more attractive now as a tank-busting squad or simply a fast squad for summoning daemons or what have you. I think as a fast attack selection we can do far better, but they are an option for an intercepting squad that is more resilience than Raptors. However, small squad sizes and high prices will be a determining factor. Again, they're better in the Damned as a tank-busting unit or summoning source as the rest of our army is simply better at the combat scene.

Lost and the Damned with allied Kroot Mercenaries

The Kroot Mercenaries are no new kid on the block but they are an option to the Lost and the Damned as well. Normally, this isn't exactly a good thing but at least it's there. I personally see it as a way to have even more control over a very versatile and extensive set of rules to use as a basis for any kind of custom Codex or scratch-made army. The rules are excellent so we can do virtually anything we want.However, my inclusion of them in this Lost and the Damned list is because the Kroot allies offer an interesting option, via we gain a 0-1 Heavy Support selection. The rest of the selections really are not even as good as a Mutant squad or group of infiltrating Traitors as we cost less or the same and have more. However, the Heavy Support selection does grant us something new and very useful.It is important again, to note that Kroot Mercenary selections do not count towards your ally slots along with the Chaos Space Marine units--this updated with the FAQ v4.0.1 and as such it is possible to have them along with your allied Chaos Space Marines for the time being.(Heavy) Hunter KindredThese heavy support Kroot Mercenaries come with sniper rifles and are dirt cheap. We have up to 9 sniper rifles with a Shaper who has access to wargear. Normally the Shaper is a bad thing in small supplies such as this, however, in our case it is a very helpful tool as there are very beneficial objects in the armory to benefit our entire Lost and the Damned. As normal, our Kroot have fieldcraft and can infiltrate and receive very nice bonuses in jungle terrains.However, they are an especially good squad in that they can infiltrate and have long range sniper rifles, for very very cheap--cheaper than any other option for sniper rifles in the game virtually (cheaper than Ratlings for example!), especially considering you can have up to 9 of them.I personally love taking Hunter Kindred. The shaper can take an Auspex to help pin down detected enemy infiltrators. Unfortunately we cannot have our Kroothawk Totems due to not being a Kroot-only list!

Sample Army Lists

The following are sample army lists to be considered merely as examples to give you an idea of how things can be fit together.

In both cases, the Demagogue was simply to show a way other than Dirge Casters to make cheap and fearless troops as they are independent and cannot be picked off. The points saved for champion upgrades and boss upgrades alone can make up the points required as well as simply being flavorful of a true Dark Apostle preaching the teachings of Chaos.

Conclusion

I hope this little walk through of our three Codices can help you make some sense of the mountain of possibilities that the Lost and the Damned are. There are probably more people using the Lost and the Damned rules and ally rules to make their own custom armies than actual Lost and the Damned players--but it is the most fluffy and themed Chaos army that you could field in that it is made up of what Chaos truly is.I always enjoy a good discussion on what it means to be Chaos and with several people pumping me for information about the Damned that I play, that I figured I would type up this little article for you to ingest and hopefully taint you to the Dark Side of mutants, traitors and heretics. Having played all the cult and legion chaos armies, I have found the Lost and the Damned to be my true calling and enjoy any chance to spread the word--surprisingly that's how Chaos works it seems!Anyhow--I hope this has helped you, or at least was interesting or inspirational for you to pick up old models and use them no matter what they look like using the rules of the Damned--afterall, anything can be corrupted to Chaos and be fielded in this manner! Old fantasy models, other models from other games, it doesn't matter--it works in the Lost and the Damned! Not to mention the raw power of super Chaos units and hordes of meaty bodies in the middle with powerful tanks. It's the scum of the scum, which is why it's the best of the best! Ok I've gone too far now.... enjoy!- End of Transmission -